7th Armoured Division's Nickname.
The name was coined by the first divisional commander, Major-General Percy Hobart on a visit to Maaten Baquish. There he met Rea Leakey, then GSO 3 Intelligence, who had a pet jerboa, or "desert rat". Hobart took to the animal and decided to adopt "The Desert Rats" as a nickname for the division. The shoulder flash was designed by the wife of his successor, Major-General Michael O'Moore Creagh, using a jerboa from Cairo Zoo as a model. The resulting shoulder patches were made of scarlet thread. These were unofficial; the War Office did not adopt the flashes until the summer of 1943 and then redesigned them to look, in the opinion of Leakey, more like a kangaroo than a jerboa. The colour was also changed to black.
Subject ID: 111966
More7th Armoured Division's Nickname.
The name was coined by the first divisional commander, Major-General Percy Hobart on a visit to Maaten Baquish. There he met Rea Leakey, then GSO 3 Intelligence, who had a pet jerboa, or "desert rat". Hobart took to the animal and decided to adopt "The Desert Rats" as a nickname for the division. The shoulder flash was designed by the wife of his successor, Major-General Michael O'Moore Creagh, using a jerboa from Cairo Zoo as a model. The resulting shoulder patches were made of scarlet thread. These were unofficial; the War Office did not adopt the flashes until the summer of 1943 and then redesigned them to look, in the opinion of Leakey, more like a kangaroo than a jerboa. The colour was also changed to black.
Subject ID: 111966
Subject ID: 111966